FMYD and Cascador Award ₦5m Each to 8 Startups

In Short

The Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD), through the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA), and Cascador ran a pilot Founders Programme that awarded funding to 17 founders.

What Happened: How The Founders Programme Selected Winners

The pilot programme drew more than 19,000 applications after launching on International Youth Day in August. It selected 17 founders from 13 states for a four week accelerator.

The participating startups were described as tackling challenges such as post harvest losses, malnutrition, waste, vaccine cold chains, clean energy and digital education.

The programme was implemented by technical partner Sapphital. It offered training in sales, customer service and investment readiness. It also included regulatory sessions with agencies including NEXIM Bank, SEC, NITDA, NAFDAC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

The eight pitch day winners were SewPro, Biuda, Sparklean Station Nigeria, Backel Food Services, Shellify, Rèkool Access Technology, Agrosavvy Consult and Craft Planet.

The remaining nine founders will each receive NGN1 million (US$750).

Cascador CEO Trish Thomas said, “We share NiYA and FMYD’s commitment to giving Nigeria’s ambitious young founders the capital and practical support they need to build stronger businesses. Seeing eight deserving founders secure funding at Pitch Day is an encouraging outcome for the pilot.”

All graduates keep NiYA alumni status and priority for future opportunities. The academy aims to train 7 million young Nigerians within two years.

Why It Matters

The programme combines small cheques with training and regulator access, and it is aiming to turn a large application pool into a pipeline of accelerator graduates.

It also gives all participants access to an ERP platform, which can help early stage teams formalise processes as they grow.